


The Monster

by kiyala



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Animal Instincts, Guns, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 05:16:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7253959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiyala/pseuds/kiyala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yahaba's an idiot for wandering out here, especially on his own. Kyoutani will make sure to tell him that later, once he finds out why the hell Yahaba is even here at all. But all of that is going to have to wait; first of all, Kyoutani is going to get Yahaba out alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Monster

**Author's Note:**

> written for [**kyouhaba week**](http://kyouhabaweek.tumblr.com/) day 2 - magic/fantasy!
> 
> art by the amazing [Kristin](http://rurounikristin.tumblr.com/)!

It's cold and dark when Kyoutani blinks his eyes open. The city is painted with the colours of twilight, most of the sky already a dark blue, the clouds purple, the horizon still orange. With a quiet grunt, he rubs a hand over his face, relieved to find that it's human-shaped.

The haziness of his transformation is still clinging to his mind, making him slower than he'd like, and a little less coordinated. He tries to get to his feet, staggering and steadying himself against a nearby wall, looking down and taking stock of himself.

He's wearing pants, even if his shirt and shoes are gone. That's always a plus. He idly traces the scars over his torso, glad that there aren't any new ones this time. He isn't sure how many days it's been this time, but he can work everything out when he gets home. Right now, all he wants is a hot shower and a warm bed.

The alleyway he's in is deserted, and he knows that he's going to stand out amongst the businesspeople and students on their evening commute home, but there's nothing that he can really do about that, right now. He squares his shoulders, puts on his most intimidating scowl, and hopes that it'll be enough to keep everyone at bay.

He's almost at the mouth of the alley when he hears something— _feels_ something—that makes him go very still. 

The air smells like danger when he lifts his face up to take a deep breath. It smells like blood, and he shuts his eyes, frowning as he concentrates. 

_"Tell us what you know, and you won't have to get hurt—"_

_"—That's not going to happen—"_

_"—Look, you can drop the bravado. I'm not going to go any easier on you just because you're a kid. You're in our way—"_

_"—I don't care."_

Kyoutani's eyes snap open when he realises that he recognises one of the voices that he can hear; that it's Yahaba. He takes another deep breath and confirms it. Yahaba's scent, mixed with blood, and the smell of a stranger. Breathes in and realises that the stranger, whoever they are, smells of gunpowder. He grits his teeth together and starts walking.

He follows his nose, pushing past people as he walks against the crowd, snarling at them to get out of his way. He's already on the outskirts of the city, but the streets he walks down as he tracks Yahaba's smell are quieter, darker, and more ominous. 

Yahaba's an idiot for wandering out here, especially on his own. Kyoutani will make sure to tell him that later, once he finds out why the hell Yahaba is even here at all. But all of that is going to have to wait; first of all, Kyoutani is going to get Yahaba out alive. 

He listens again, growling under his breath as he hears the unmistakable sound of someone being pushed against a wall. He recognises Yahaba's pained gasp, and it makes him pick his pace up, his heart pounding in his chest. He'd do this for anyone, he tells himself, as he picks up another sharp gasp of pain and breaks into a run. It doesn't mean anything that he's doing this for Yahaba. It doesn't mean anything at all. 

Yahaba, when Kyoutani finally finds him, is in an alley, backed up against a wall, his eyes wide and round with fear. There's a thug standing in front of him, holding him at gunpoint.

"One last chance," the thug warns. "We've seen you running around the city all week, we know you're onto something. Tell us where to find it." 

Yahaba doesn't see Kyoutani standing in mouth of the alley, which means that the thug doesn't either. Kyoutani wants to tear the guy apart, but it isn't safe to transform here. He knows that. 

Instead, he puts all of his strength into the way he leaps at the thug, knocking the gun out of his hand. 

"What the—?" 

Kyoutani doesn't give the guy any time to recover, scrambling to his feet and getting ready to attack again. 

Which is about the time he realises that he's miscalculated. This isn't an ordinary thug; there's nothing ordinary about his speed at all. 

Kyoutani's still slower than usual, this soon after transforming, and he doesn't have the time to block as the guy swings at him, knocking him onto his back. 

"Kyoutani?" Yahaba asks in disbelief. 

"Get out of here," Kyoutani replies, getting to his feet only to be met with another punch across his face. It sends him staggering into the wall, the rough brick scratching across his skin. "Yahaba, _go_."

"You didn't tell me you had a buddy," the thug says, kicking Kyoutani in the stomach, " _Yahaba-kun_."

"Leave him out of this," Yahaba pleads, his words rushed and desperate. "He's not involved. He's not—please— _Kyoutani_!"

"Oh," the thug grins down at Kyoutani, picking him up, just to throw him against the wall. "You care about him, huh? Well, you've just made my job a lot easier."

"No—"

Kyoutani's legs buckle, and he grunts in pain as the wall scrapes across his back on his way down. With a wicked grin, the thug picks his gun up from where it had been knocked aside, pointing it at Kyoutani. 

"This is going to be very simple, Yahaba-kun." With a click, the thug takes the gun's safety off, finger curling around the trigger. "If you don't tell me what you've found out, your friend here is going to pay for it."

"Try it," Kyoutani snarls, and he can feel the beast inside him stirring, itching to be let out. He could turn this entire thing around, he could save Yahaba—

No. He can't control it yet. He's just as likely to maul Yahaba as he is to save him, and that's not a risk he's willing to take. 

"You're an idiot, kid," the thug tells him, smirking. "Learn to mind your own business, in your next life."

"No!" Yahaba cries, and he starts running towards them. 

Kyoutani wants to yell at him to stay put, but he can't make his throat work. He can't transform. He can't do anything. 

He squeezes his eyes shut as the thug shoots. He hears the gunshot, he hears a loud crunch of what sounds like bones against each other. 

Then, he hears nothing. 

No, he thinks. That's not quite right.

He can hear soft panting, a pained hitch of someone's breath.

Yahaba's breath. He can hear Yahaba. 

[ ](http://rurounikristin.tumblr.com/post/146204758272/)

[](http://rurounikristin.tumblr.com/post/146204758272/)

[](http://rurounikristin.tumblr.com/post/146204758272/)

[](http://rurounikristin.tumblr.com/post/146204758272/)

He opens his eyes, and finds that he's still alive. Yahaba is standing in front of him, hands braced against the wall on either side of Kyoutani's head, wincing as he bleeds from his nose.

"You're bleeding," Kyoutani rasps, and blinks slowly when he realises that there's a barrier around them, made of curving bones. His eyes go wide when he realises that they're coming from Yahaba's back. "You…"

Yahaba coughs, and a trickle of blood runs down his chin. "Are you okay?" 

"Are _you_?" Kyoutani asks, taking hold of Yahaba's arm. "Your ear's bleeding too."

"I'm fine," Yahaba replies with a sharp gasp that says that he's clearly not. His face contorts in pain as the bones recede, disappearing into his back. He looks over his shoulder, going incredibly still. "Shit."

The thug is lying unconscious on the ground, his entire side clearly marked from where Yahaba's bones extended and knocked him aside. It must have been a heavy blow; Kyoutani knows from looking that he's limbs aren't quite sitting right.

"Yahaba…"

" _Shit_ ," Yahaba repeats, a little more hysterical this time. "I was trying to avoid—I didn't want to hurt him—"

"Yahaba!" Kyoutani tightens his grip on Yahaba's arm, shaking a little. "He was going to _kill you_. He had a gun on you." 

"He had a gun on _you_ ," Yahaba says, his eyes wide and terrified. "He was going to shoot you and I—I didn't even think, I'm sorry, I—"

"You saved me," Kyoutani tells him firmly. "Uh. And your shirt…"

Yahaba groans softly, reaching behind him, tugging on the torn material. "Great."

"What were you doing here?" Kyoutani asks. "The guy was asking for information. What do you know, that would get you in this kind of trouble?"

Something immediately shifts in Yahaba and he grows quiet and uncomfortable, averting his gaze.

"Look," Kyoutani sighs wearily. "I just saw bones come out of your body. I nearly died. You nearly died. You're _still bleeding_."

Yahaba wipes at his face absently, and it's so different from the Yahaba that Kyoutani knows, who is always so prim and proper. This version of Yahaba, with his hair standing messily in all directions, his shirt torn, his face streaked with blood, is completely unfamiliar to him. It doesn't sit well with him.

Then again, Kyoutani supposes, Yahaba doesn't know about the beast either. 

"There have been reports," Yahaba says quietly, "about some kind of monster. It keeps appearing and disappearing, but the thing is—it's a _big_ monster. There haven't been any reliable reports on what it looks like, but it's not the kind of thing that can move around unnoticed, you know?"

Kyoutani's blood runs cold. He nods slowly. "Right."

Yahaba rubs a hand over his face and suddenly, he looks incredibly tired. "I figured out that it's getting away without being captured because it's a person. It's like my bone thing. Or that guy's speed thing. Someone has a monster thing."

The beast inside Kyoutani rumbles, threatened and defensive. Kyoutani shoves it down, and tries his best to keep his face blank. 

"I've been looking for them," Yahaba says. "You know. Because that's a person, and they're probably scared, or need help figuring things out, but there are other people looking for them too, because they might be _useful_ , as a monster."

"Really?" Kyoutani asks. "There are people looking for… for that." 

Yahaba looks at him, sighing again, and looks even wearier. "Kyoutani."

"Don't," Kyoutani warns, but he's the one who's afraid, and he knows it shows.

"Kyoutani," Yahaba says again, softer this time. "You've been absent from school. Didn't you think someone would notice? Didn't you think _I_ would? Your absences line up. The same number of days, every time." 

"Don't," Kyoutani whispers, and he's the one backing up against the wall. "Don't. Yahaba. Don't—" 

"I wasn't sure," Yahaba murmurs, walking towards Kyoutani, "until you showed up just now. Maybe I didn't want to connect the dots and realise I've been looking for someone without realising they were always right in front of me." 

"It's unstable," Kyoutani tells him shakily. "Like you said. A monster." 

"That's why I was looking for you," Yahaba replies, touching Kyoutani's hand tentatively at first, then gently taking hold of his wrist. "It's going to be okay. We'll figure this out. I'll keep you safe. I mean, I already have once, right?"

Kyoutani shakes his head. "You were bleeding from all over when you put that bone shield up. I'm not going to make you do that for me ever again."

"It only happened because I pushed myself," Yahaba says, sounding so matter-of-fact about it that Kyoutani would laugh if he wasn't so scared. "I've never tried stopping a bullet before. I didn't want to take any chances."

"My legs are going to give out again," Kyoutani mutters, swaying on his feet. 

"I've got you," Yahaba replies, holding onto Kyoutani's arms. "You'll be safe, okay? I've got you."

"Yeah." Kyoutani is too tired to do anything but lean against Yahaba, shutting his eyes. His heart is still pounding and he can hear it in his head. Yahaba still smells overwhelmingly like blood, but he's right. They're safe. "Yeah. Okay."


End file.
